THE ENTIRE effort to hold what is now Manhattan Island from the British had been an utter failure.
British Lieutenant-General William Howe (1729-1814) with his 6,000 redcoats, 7,000 newly arrived Hessians under the command General Wilhelm von Knyphausen (1716-1800) and up to 150 ships sailed into Long Island Sound and disembarked their force east of the American positions on the island.[1]
In relatively short order, the British forces had dislodged the Americans from New York City in September of 1776 and nearly trapped General George Washington (1732-1799) and the bulk of the colonial forces at Harlem Heights in October of the same year.
